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NSW police have issued a fine against an US-based online influencer and handed out two driving violation citations for reported reckless operation following a swarm of e-bike riders gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of approximately 40 individuals operating electric bikes and motorbikes proceeded along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly then turned around and rode through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

"There was a risk of serious injury or fatalities," remarked a senior police official David Driver on Wednesday.

Police indicated they did not chase right away the riders due to safety concerns but rather found the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Fines Imposed for Content Creator

Later in the week, police stated they had issued the American online personality known as Sur Ronster, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (with no death or previous bodily harm), with a penalty of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge ride-out. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.

The influencer is said to have more than 3.4 million followers on YouTube and over 1.2 million on the social media app.

Influencer's Comments

The online figure gave comments to a local publication recently after the incident spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was among the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he said. "I’m coming here as a guest, so I’m going to come here respecting the rules and standards of Sydney. When I decided to do a public meeting it did not involve a group ride, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, I am to blame we ended up on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and turns around, an illegal act. Or we turn around, basically, before entering the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on streets across the country has prompted increasing demands for stricter rules. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in stupid things on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are presenting at our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," he stated. "We must make sure we stop these things entering the country [and] police are given the authority to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."

The state reported over two hundred injuries associated with electric bikes in 2024. However, in the initial half of the following year, that figure jumped to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.